Course Advocacy and Effective Influencing
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The course is full. You can sign up for the waiting list.
Enhance your capacity to influence others
Your influence shapes which ideas gain traction, which collaborations succeed, and which opportunities move forward. In a world where many actors compete for attention, influencing effectively has become essential in almost any professional setting.
Whether you want colleagues to support your approach, decision-makers to align with your objectives, or audiences to fully understand the value of your work, this training offers practical tools, structure, and confidence to help you move others with purpose.
Dual Approach
Because influence is embedded in everyday life, it is a skill that can be developed through solid strategic and analytical tools, and through deliberate practice of interpersonal elements of persuasion.
During the course, you will explore the methods that campaigners, sales professionals, and lobbyists use to move people to action, and discover how to adapt these techniques to your own context. The training is highly practice-oriented; you will gain experience through group exercises, individual reflection, and actor-based simulations.
Building on more than 40 years of experience in training international professionals from different sectors, the Clingendael Method ™ underscores that being influential is not only a strategic process, but also an interpersonal skill.
What will you learn?
- Learn the steps and tools of Clingendael’s dual approach to effective influencing
- Become skilled in analysing relevant stakeholders and positioning yourself strategically
- Gain skills in formulating effective, targeted messages
- Grow in interpersonal persuasion through a deeper understanding of emotional dynamics and effective interaction
Is this course for you?
This course is designed for professionals that work in an international context, including:
- Civil servants (ministry, provincial or municipal level)
- NGO or other non-profit professionals
- Professionals operating in international or political environments
We welcome private sector professionals to join our course on Advocacy and Effective Influencing, while noting that our approach is rooted in extensive experience with public sector and NGO participants, operating in international and political environments.
No prior training or experience is required. Seats are limited to 16 participants.
When?
This two-day course will take place in 2026. Early registration is recommended. All 2025 editions were sold out:
- Next edition: 24 and 25 June 2026 (fully booked, only waitlist available)
- Edition 3: 9 and 10 November 2026 (use this registration form for the third edition)
Which methods will be used?
To achieve meaningful results, you need to see the full picture. At Clingendael, we call this the Dual Lens of Influencing: one lens focuses on strategic tools, the other on interpersonal persuasion. You reach your full influencing potential when both lenses come into focus. In this two-day programme, we explore each dimension in depth.
- Foundations
- Understanding the field of influencing
- Recognising key influencing tactics
- Strategic Tools
- Issue identification and objective setting
- Stakeholder analysis: engaging key players
- Message formulation: reaching target audiences with tailormade messaging.
- Interpersonal persuasion
- Self-Awareness and understanding each other: navigating emotions to lower barriers for influence
- Interactions: understanding your counterparts’ behaviour
We use interactive e-learnings, group exercises, and actor-based simulations grounded in real working practice. Through experiential learning we enable participants to apply influencing in practice and show that it is not an abstract concept, but an active process.
Clingendael Academy
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